Street Photography - tried it, didn't get very far!

chris321

chris321

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Having seen a fair bit of street photography on here, I thought I'd give it a go now all my exams are over etc! So it was a lovely Friday afternoon, loads of people about, and I took a grand total of.........zero photos.

I like street photography that really captures the atmosphere, or tells a story. Without that, I consider them just random photos of people I don't know.

So how do you people do it?! Is it just a case of snapping away, and hoping you've got some good ones, or are there signs or anything to look out for that will ultimately make a good photo?

I know my question is a bit vague, but I suppose I'm wondering what the train of thought is that goes through a photographer's head when out and about, taking pictures of people? Any help would be much appreciated!

Chris
 
The rare times I do it I use very wide angle, so that I can get people in pics without pointing the lens at them :). cowardly it is. but my people skills are low
 
I think to really get to grips with street photography, you have to be a good people watcher! Instead of going barging in with your camera, go and buy a coffee, and sit outside the cafe and just watch. Watch the world go by, watch what people do, try and pick up their behavioural traits just before they do something interesting :)
 
purpleclouds said:
I think to really get to grips with street photography, you have to be a good people watcher! Instead of going barging in with your camera, go and buy a coffee, and sit outside the cafe and just watch. Watch the world go by, watch what people do, try and pick up their behavioural traits just before they do something interesting :)
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:plusone:

Interaction between people and that sort of thing
 
as said..it's not easy to get those wow shots.i've done some "street" over the last 8-9 months,and i think i'm making improvements slowly.....but you have to out there trying,and get your images on here for some critique..it's the best way to learn.look at luke woodfords street stuff for some inspiration :thumbs:
 
When I lived in UK (late 2007 ~ early 2009) I had carried my cameras with me every single day. If, for whatever reason, I couldn't carry a good kit, then my D40 and a good lens were still with me.

Daily I'd shoot a few shots that I come home and say "great" to myself (of course that could just be because I have low expectations from myself :p .. but I hope that's not the case).

To add to this ...

purpleclouds said:
I think to really get to grips with street photography, you have to be a good people watcher! Instead of going barging in with your camera, go and buy a coffee, and sit outside the cafe and just watch. Watch the world go by, watch what people do, try and pick up their behavioural traits just before they do something interesting :)
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... find yourself a theme that you like in people! For me, I like a picture of someone who's drifting away in a daydream .. or is staring at me (candidly) and smiling.

The first one is easy to capture, if you're out long enough and often enough. The second theme is a lot harder, since the subject and myself have to make eye-contact by pure chance while my camera is ready and pointing in their direction.

Whatever it may be .. find what you like to shoot, the expressions that touch you and go out daily, with your kit, and shoot.

You build-up a portfolio over the years, visiting different cities and countries. One day you'll look back and see you've got yourself a few 100s of great shots of pure strangers with a facial expression you've grown to understand all too well.
 
chris321 said:
Having seen a fair bit of street photography on here, I thought I'd give it a go now all my exams are over etc! So it was a lovely Friday afternoon, loads of people about, and I took a grand total of.........zero photos.

I like street photography that really captures the atmosphere, or tells a story. Without that, I consider them just random photos of people I don't know.

So how do you people do it?! Is it just a case of snapping away, and hoping you've got some good ones, or are there signs or anything to look out for that will ultimately make a good photo?

I know my question is a bit vague, but I suppose I'm wondering what the train of thought is that goes through a photographer's head when out and about, taking pictures of people? Any help would be much appreciated!

Chris
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This may help, Ok he was using film but the rules would be the same with digital.

Documentary and
Street Photography

Street Photography involves getting close to people — often very close. To do this type of shooting successfully you have to be in the scene, part of it, not a distant observer. This means shooting with wide lenses; certainly nothing longer than 50mm. With a wide-angle lens you are a participant. With a telephoto you are at best just an observer, at worst a voyeur.

Shooting this way means moving closer into most people's personal space than they are normally used to. For this reason places like crowded streets in big cities, midways, carnivals, parades and the like are preferred venues.


Don't be sneaky. Don't carry a big tecky-looking camera case. A small shoulder bag is all you need for a body and a few lenses and film. Wear simple, unpretentious clothing. Dress like the people that you're photographing. Don't hide your cameras. Don't "sneak" your shots. Don't skulk at a distance shooting with long lenses. Don't be a voyeur, be a participant.

Finally, smile. Smile often. If someone objects to having their picture taken, don't take it. If someone turns away, respect their privacy. Smile. Have fun.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/street.shtml
 
Wow, thanks for all the replies, I completely forgot I even started this thread (had a LOT of exams since then!)!

Great advice from people, time for a bit of as-uncreepy-as-possible people watching I think! I'm not sure about the 'only using focal lengths of under 50mm' rule, it seems a little scary to me, but I'll have another go at some point soon, and try and take this on board! Cheers guys :thumbs:

Chris
 
Well, I've found the best way to get decent shots is to find the right areas at the right times, and have a few beers first :D

Soho of an evening is brilliant, rammed with colourful people, usually a few togs about as well.

Soho during the day is populated 99% by wandering tourists and shoppers. I spent an hour there last weekend and didn't take a single shot.

Also, if you're around London, go check out the South Bank, particularly the skateboard/bmx area under Queen Elizabeth Hall. The guys down there are all exhibitionists and are well used to togs snapping away. Recently there's more people doing Parkour (free-running), and again, are more than happy to be photographed. Good way to get your eye in shooting strangers :)
 
Some good advice on here, I've been trying to get into candid street photography, but just find it very difficult, but I'll keep at it :)

I'm going to try distance shots first to build up confidence (now I have a 100-400 lens). Although it's not very subtle walking around with this gear.
 
Yeah it helps if you're in a group. If anyone wants to do a London afternoon/evening meet sometime I'd be well up for it.
 
Obviously the problem with a group is that your likely to end up with similar shots. OP, are you looking at street photography or street portraiture? I worked on a street portraiture project up until a month ago, going into town regularly and coming back with absolutely nothing so many times. I consider myself quite confident, the people I asked for a shot said I was to, but it was more the fact that I didn't have the guts to ask people rather than them saying no. Well I changed my environment to my local park (obviously this works with street portraiture but not street photography as you'll no doubt want it in a town environment/background) and I found people a lot more laid back and it easier to take the shots. Generally the more I took the more confident I became. Just be friendly if your asking permission, say what it's for, have a laugh with them. I got a shot of my local big issue guy, he was annoyed at first but he gave in :P Apparently he gets asked a lot by students.
 
This type of photography requires a lot of confidence. To be honest, I am quite a shy person and think maybe doing something like this could be good for me.

The problem I can imagine with asking people for permission is they will not look as natural in the photo, especially if they feel they have to fake a smile. I prefer photos without smiles and without looking directly into the lens. Natural "unaware" candid shots look much better, but its risky business and I don't fancy getting my but kicked!
 
Go out with a big bloody zoom lens.

I'm a girl and prefer to shoot from afar, it's not dissimilar to trying to get pictures of wild animals without startling them.
 
Big_Ham said:
Go out with a big bloody zoom lens.

I'm a girl and prefer to shoot from afar, it's not dissimilar to trying to get pictures of wild animals without startling them.
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Most wild animals won't take the opportunity to pinch your gear though! :lol:
 
Big_Ham said:
Go out with a big bloody zoom lens.

I'm a girl and prefer to shoot from afar, it's not dissimilar to trying to get pictures of wild animals without startling them.
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I think it's different schools of thought to observe and be a 'vouyer' (in an artistic sense or to interact and be part of the scene

all this is pontificating as I have yet to summon up the courage to actually shoot any street
 
markets are always good to find character worthy of these types of shots. oh and they tend to be busy hunting out bargains so tend not to notice you so much!

it can be hard though. i often it the streets and come back empty handed (apart from my camera of course!_)
 
Covent garden is ideal. They couldn't care less if you take photos of them, and you get all the different characters - street performers, etc.
 
voodoochild said:
This type of photography requires a lot of confidence. To be honest, I am quite a shy person and think maybe doing something like this could be good for me.

The problem I can imagine with asking people for permission is they will not look as natural in the photo, especially if they feel they have to fake a smile. I prefer photos without smiles and without looking directly into the lens. Natural "unaware" candid shots look much better, but its risky business and I don't fancy getting my but kicked!
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Depends, I'm not overly keen on shooting people who are just walking around, I do it and get some nice shots sometimes but it's not really my thing.

I love going to outdoor concerts, markets, places where people are caught in the moment, the people I want to shoot I make eye contact with, give a smile and then indicate to my camera, 9 times out of 10 they they are cool, I walk away for a few min's or so and then come back and shoot, they seem to accept that I'm there and just get on with things normally, nearly always get good shots.
 
Try shooting with a right angle DR-5/DR-6 (or Canon equivalent) viewfinder adapter. That way you can feel a little less obvious, and other people won't immediately notice what you're up to. Maybe this is a good application for the new D5000 flip screen...
 
My bit of advice for street photoraphy is to keep shooting. If you wait for a "wow" shot you'll more than likely come home with nothing. If you get into the habit of shooting away, you'll be more confident and ready for action when a golden opportunity presents itself. It's also quite surprising the number of times you can actually catch a good scene and not know about it until you look at the images when you get home.
I went out yesterday and took around 250 photos and considered that well over half of them were worth keeping :thumbs: If nothing else it's all good practice...
Oh and don't listen to all that "you gotta do this and have that lens" nonsense. There are no rules. A good photo is a good photo regardless of how it was obtained :)
 
ROFL2K9 said:
Oh and don't listen to all that "you gotta do this and have that lens" nonsense. There are no rules.
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Well unfortunately there are rules, just like there are rules for macro or anything else, you can't manufacture the feeling of being part of the scene zoomed to 200mm, its not convenient I know but that's the way it is, you can't change that if it doesn't suit you or you find it difficult, that's what street is, being in the frame part of the event/scene.
If you want to shoot peeps with a tele in the street and call it street that's up to you, but it just isn't, and doesn't look like it either, it might be excellent but its a shot in the street or a street portrait or whatever.
Street isn't anything you shoot at any length in any street, street is as particular a genre as macro.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/street.shtml

I get nervous sometimes when I'm out specifically to shoot street, after a while when I haven't shot anything through self conciousness, the pressure starts to build and I have to just fire a few off from further away than I'd like, gradually I get closer and closer and kinda get on a roll.
Its stupid really, 99% of peeps couldn't give a wet fart anyway, they probably don't even see me which kinda cocks up any eye contact thing but ya can't have it all ways.
It is much easier at an event, or in an area where you'd expect to find peeps taking photographs, than down you're average high street in front of Woolworths.
 
joxby said:
Well unfortunately there are rules, just like there are rules for macro or anything else, you can't manufacture the feeling of being part of the scene zoomed to 200mm.
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Interesting point of view, according to your quote and the link you posted:

"Street Photography involves getting close to people — often very close. To do this type of shooting successfully you have to be in the scene, part of it, not a distant observer. This means shooting with wide lenses; certainly nothing longer than 50mm."

Well I gotta say that I disagree. I've taken photos at varying focal lengths, from 17mm to 300mm and had some great interaction at all of these lengths. I've stood 10ft away from people with my 70-300 and have certainly been 'in the frame' and part of the action as it were. I think a lot of people get confused and think that if you're using a lens with a long and varied focal length that you're gonna be across the street spying from behind a bush :lol:
There are no rules because there is no rule book. Unfortunately street photography is another one of those genres that will provoke debate until the end of time, or at least until people realise that you can only decide what makes a good 'street photograph' by looking at the image itself and not at the EXIF data :)
 
Did my major project for my BA Hons at university on street photography.

The concept was to interview a random stranger about their idea of escapism – the thing they see as the defining action that makes them removed from their everyday lives – and then photograph them as I found them (place of work, on the street etc). They then wrote down their way of escaping life and I completed the tryptic with a shot of something that visualised thei escapism. The images were 12" square.

Anyway, I was nervous as hell but I just approached people and out of the 40 or so people I approached, only about three were arsey. The whole thing is cringeworthy looking back on it but I found myself enjoying it more and more as I went on. It taught me about people sills but more than anything, taught me about thinking on the spot and being eagle-eyed as to what I shot. The highlight was a drunk guy who slept rough who was a hoot and had the most beautiful handwriting. Considering he was hammering back the Special Brews he was a true gent.

My advice, go out there, keep plugging and use your patience to look before pressing the trigger :)
 
ROFL2K9 said:
There are no rules because there is no rule book. Unfortunately street photography is another one of those genres that will provoke debate until the end of time, or at least until people realise that you can only decide what makes a good 'street photograph' by looking at the image itself and not at the EXIF data :)
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There may not be 'rules' but there are conventions and schools of thought. You can buck agains them if you like, but you've more to gain by understanding them first than immediately thinking that you're big enough and good enough to flaunt these conventions.

The vast majority of 'street' photography posted on here is no such thing IMVHO, and most of it I'm afraid to say uninspiring. It is simply one of the most challengin genres to do well. Most people, as the OP, seem to have a problem with being out in the street taking the picture. I think that this isn't anywhere near the real issue. The real issue is that most people think that merely getting past the barrier of shooting in the street is enough, so much so that the picture itself becomes a byproduct rather than the end in itself.
 
Jayst84 said:
Luke doesn't do much street though does he? More headshots of people outside I thought.
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I class most of what I do as street portraits but some other street aswell. I don't think you can spend the day just looking for the background that matches the people type stuff.
 
NorthernNikon said:
There may not be 'rules' but there are conventions and schools of thought. You can buck agains them if you like, but you've more to gain by understanding them first than immediately thinking that you're big enough and good enough to flaunt these conventions.
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Some of the most inspiring and creative works of art have been achieved by 'flaunting conventions'. You don't have to be 'big enough or 'good enough', just creative enough to understand that there are more ways than one to achieve a goal. If these conventions state that you should use a lens no longer than 50mm then that's ok by me. I'll continue to use my combination of 17mm through to 300mm and aren't really bothered what pidgeon hole my images fit into :lol:
 
ROFL2K9 said:
Interesting point of view, according to your quote and the link you posted:

"Street Photography involves getting close to people — often very close. To do this type of shooting successfully you have to be in the scene, part of it, not a distant observer. This means shooting with wide lenses; certainly nothing longer than 50mm."

Well I gotta say that I disagree. I've taken photos at varying focal lengths, from 17mm to 300mm and had some great interaction at all of these lengths. I've stood 10ft away from people with my 70-300 and have certainly been 'in the frame' and part of the action as it were. I think a lot of people get confused and think that if you're using a lens with a long and varied focal length that you're gonna be across the street spying from behind a bush :lol:
There are no rules because there is no rule book. Unfortunately street photography is another one of those genres that will provoke debate until the end of time, or at least until people realise that you can only decide what makes a good 'street photograph' by looking at the image itself and not at the EXIF data :)
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Its not really my point of view, and this really is my point, its the definition of a genre that you or I cannot change, its not up for discussion there is no ambiguity, there is room for a little compromise/artistic licence but not at the scale you are talking about, 50mm is the starter, 60mm....can anybody tell the difference :shrug: not really especially on a crop, but much more than that and you aren't going to get close and wide, a tele close up does not make the viewer feel like he/she is part of the scene or is in the scene, its voyeuristic binocular.
Maybe you can get the odd shot that somebody thinks looks vaguely street at longer than 60, but there'll be an element of personal subjectivity thrown in to that.
I don't need exif to be able to judge whether an image is street or not.

I don't wanna be anal about all this but we just have to accept what is, we can't just change stuff under the guise of artistic initiative when really its just about convenience.
Is macro with a nifty fifty still macro, because its convenient as I don't have a macro lens, if I say it isn't do I get panned for stifling creativity..:lol:



lukewoodford said:
I class most of what I do as street portraits but some other street aswell. I don't think you can spend the day just looking for the background that matches the people type stuff.
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I'm glad you said that :thumbs:, not wanting to pick on you particularly just cos somebody else mentioned your name, I didn't say anything.
They are mostly street portraits not street.
They're very good, just not street.
 
ROFL2K9 said:
Some of the most inspiring and creative works of art have been achieved by 'flaunting conventions'. You don't have to be 'big enough or 'good enough', just creative enough to understand that there are more ways than one to achieve a goal. If these conventions state that you should use a lens no longer than 50mm then that's ok by me. I'll continue to use my combination of 17mm through to 300mm and aren't really bothered what pidgeon hole my images fit into :lol:
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It's not a question of pigeon holing, it's a matter of understanding genre. the "most inspiring and creative works of art have been achieved by 'flaunting conventions'" you reference were all done by people who understood the conventions they were working against.
 
I do understand the genre and also understand that there are many interpretations of it, hence the endless debates on what is Street Photography and what isn't.

I have done a fair amount of reading and viewing of the subject in the previous few months and have drawn a lot of inspiration from it and made my own decisions as to how I want to carry on taking photographs 'in the street' so to speak. I've never been one to do things a certain way just because convention says so, I do things how I like to do them and however they bring me the most enjoyment.

I use different lenses because I enjoy the variation and the different end results that each one can achieve. I might pop on my wide lens and spend an afternoon shooting at 17mm or pop on a long lens and spend a day seeing what results i can get with that. It's not done for convenience as joxby suggested, it's done for enjoyment, variation and development of different ideas and perspectives. I'm as far from an accomplished photographer as you can possibly get, but I'm on a long and exciting journey of developing my own styles and enjoyment of photography.

So, if only the images that I've taken with my 17mm or nifty are considered to be Street Photography by the masses and the ones taken with the longer lens aren't then that's fine and dandy by me. Like I said, I'll just carry on as normal and might even carve myself a new niche.... "Urban Documentary"... has that one been taken yet? :D

I guess the best way to go about things is to do things how you enjoy them and let others decide what they want to call it. I don't suppose the pioneers of street photography had a meeting, came up with the name and a decided a set of rules for taking the photographs. They went out and just did whatever made them happy, using whatever equipment they liked, and that is still my advice to the OP :thumbs:

Well, the sun is trying to make an appearance so I'm gonna go out and myself a bit of Urban Documentary..... this time next year Rodney :D
 
joxby said:
Its not really my point of view, and this really is my point, its the definition of a genre that you or I cannot change, its not up for discussion there is no ambiguity
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Where is this definition you speak of? I can't find it....

I do a lot of BA work and if there's one thing I've learned about definitions...it's that 90% of the time everyone has a different one ;)
 
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